The Arcade

It was obvious from the look on Vita Castelhano’s face that she had been crying. Her mascara had smeared, and there were streaks marking the path her tears took down her face. Her husband Gus looked only marginally less anguished.

“Joe, Cosmo – how is he?” Vita nearly sobbed. “Is he badly hurt? Will he –”

Joe briefly embraced both of Theo’s parents. “As far as we know, he’s going to be okay. The doctor hasn’t been out to see anyone – apparently Theo is in surgery. His arm and leg were pretty badly broken. The paramedic said that the helmet most likely saved his life.”

Gus Castelhano asked “How did this happen? Did anyone see how the accident happened?”

It was Cosmo’s turn to speak. “I saw the whole thing, Mr. Castelhano. My dad and I were having breakfast at the Micky-Dee’s on the way to school, when I saw Theo come through the intersection. He wasn’t speeding or anything – his front tire just came loose, and he pitched over the handlebars onto the street.”

Theo’s mom exclaimed “I knew we shouldn’t have let my father get him that infernal thing! I just knew it!”

Gus hugged her a little closer and said “Now, sweetheart – we both talked about it and we both agreed to it., and clearly from what Cosmo said, it wasn’t Theo’s nor anyone else’s fault. It was just a freak accident, that’s all. We should just thank God and the Blessed Mother that no one else was involved. It could have been a lot worse.”

At this, Theo’s mother crossed herself. Leaning in to her husband, she gave a shuddering sigh. “You’re right, Gus. I would just like for the doctor to come out soon and let us know how everything is going.”

Almost as if on cue, a doctor in green surgical scrubs came out into the ER waiting room and looked about. Seeing the four of them, he walked over and, introducing himself as ‘Dr. Brady’, asked if they were the parents of Theodore Castelhano. Facing the doctor, Gus nodded and said “We are. How is our son?”

The doctor clasped his hands together behind his back and replied, “I won’t sugar-coat it, Mr. Castelhano. Your son was in a pretty serious accident. He had multiple fractures of his right arm and his left leg, multiple contusions, a pretty nasty laceration on his knee, and a severe concussion.

Looking at the chart in his hands, he continued “He also suffered two broken ribs. Luckily, he suffered no internal injuries – which is nothing short of a miracle considering the nature of the other injuries.”

Hearing all this, Theo’s mother nearly collapsed into a chair, and began to cry in earnest – but these were tears of relief. Gus, still holding his wife’s hand, asked “Are there going to be any long-term problems?”

Looking at the chart again, the doctor replied, “Well, he will be in traction for a few weeks, and there will be some rehabilitation necessary, but we won’t know to what degree until he’s a little farther along in the healing process. Other than that, no – no long term problems.”

Gus grasped the doctors hand “Thank you doctor, so very much. May God bless you for helping my boy.”

The doctor smiled and said “You’re very welcome. I am glad we could help him. He’s in Recovery right now, but I’ll have the nurse let you know when you can see your son.”

Excusing himself, Dr. Brady left the waiting room. Gus sat down next to his wife and took a deep breath. He looked at Joe and Cosmo, and after a moment he said “I think now would be a good time to pray. Would you all like to join me?”

Joe and Cosmo nodded, and Joe replied “You bet Gus. The Our Father?”

Gus nodded “And a Hail Mary, too, I think.” They all clasped hands and began to pray.

Moments later the prayers were finished. Cosmo had added an extra, specific prayer for Theo, to which they had all responded ‘Lord, hear our prayer.’ They sat in silence for some time before a nurse appeared to let the Castelhanos know they could see their son.

Cosmo inquired about when Theo might be able to have regular visitors, to which the nurse responded “It should be okay to see him tomorrow during normal visiting hours.” Cosmo nodded and thanked her before turning back to his dad.

“What now, dad?”

Joe looked towards Theo’s parents. “Gus, Vita – would you like us to stick around awhile with you?”

Gus reached over and took Joe’s hand. Smiling, he replied “No, that’s alright. I think we’re going to go ahead and go sit with Theo for awhile – or at least until they chase us out. You and Cosmo go home and let Rosemary know what happened, and let her know everything is okay.”

Looking at Cosmo he continued “And you are going to want to let all his friends know what happened, I’m sure. They’ll all want to come see him.”

Cosmo looked down for a moment, and then looked back at Gus. “Yeah.”

Sensing that something was bothering Cosmo, Gus reached over and took his hand. “There was nothing you could have done. In fact, if you hadn’t been there when you were, we might not have known about it until much later. Thank you for being there, and for being such a good friend to my Theo.”

A huge lump suddenly developed in his throat, and smiling weakly through a haze of unshed tears, he nodded.

Clearing his throat, Joe spoke for both of them. “Well, Cosmo and I will be getting along home, then. Please call us if you need anything, and especially to let us know how Theo is doing. If you like, I’ll go ahead and call the school to let them know what has happened. I need to let them know why Cosmo won’t be in today anyway.”

Gus and Vita smiled, and Gus said “Thank you, Joe. We appreciate that, and we’ll call you as soon as we get home from the hospital.”

“Sounds good, Gus.” The four of them stood and exchanged hugs, and after saying goodbyes all around, Cosmo and Joe left the hospital.

The ride home was a quiet one, with both father and son lost in thought. Joe thinking about his past, and Cosmo living in his. Just as they were turning on to the street on which thy lived, Cosmo looked at his dad. “Are we gonna talk some more later about all this?”

Joe thought for a moment before answering. “Yeah, I think we probably will. I know I have questions, and I’m pretty sure you must have a bunch, too. We need to figure out what all this means, why Sal is involved, and why he chose us – among other things.”

Cosmo looked back out the window. “Yeah. Weird is okay. Freaky – well, that’s a little different. This is way past freaky.”

Joe was nodding. “Yup. As we used to say in the Seventies, ‘this is a trip’…”

They pulled in to the drive of their home, and were met at the door by Rosemary, who was wearing a very concerned expression.

“I have been worried to death about you two! First I get a call from the school attendance secretary, asking if Cosmo is sick. When I asked her why she thought that, she informs me that he hasn’t been to school yet. THEN I get a call from your office not five minutes later asking if you’re sick, because you haven’t been in yet, and there apparently was some sort of meeting you were late for.”

Joe smacked his forehead. “Rats! I forgot all about that!” He looked at his son. “A design meeting for a new line of computers – you probably already know which one I mean.”

Cosmo said “Does it start with an ‘m’ ?”

“Yup.”

“Gotcha.”

Rosemary watched this exchange between her husband and son before angrily marching up to Joe and poking him in the chest. “Are you listening to me?? I said I. Have. Been. Worried. To. Death!” With each punctuated word, she poked her husband a little harder.

“Ouch! I heard, you Rosie, I heard you! We’re fine, honey. It’s Theo – there’s been an accident.”

Rosemary paled visibly. “What?” It came out as a whisper. Joe took her by the hand and led her away from the driveway, and toward the house.

As they were walking to the door he said, “Let’s go inside. You’re going to need to sit down, I think.”

Thirty minutes and a cup of coffee later, Rosemary was still dabbing at her eyes with a Kleenex. “So Gus and Vita are there with him now?”

Joe nodded. “Yes, and they said they’ll call when it’s okay for the rest of us to go visit him. He’s going to be pretty sedated at least for a day or so, I would imagine.”

“Dear God. It’s a miracle the boy isn’t more seriously injured.” She said.

“Yeah -” Cosmo began. “You didn’t see it happen. We were there.”

“What do you mean you were there? What were you doing there?” Cosmo’s mother had turned to look at him with a quizzical expression. Too late, he realized his slip.

Luckily, Joe was quicker. “I wanted to stop at McDonald’s and grab a cup of coffee for the ride to work, and it happened while we were waiting.”

Cosmo sighed inwardly as his mother simply said “Oh. Well God sure did put you two in the right place at the right time.”

Cosmo thought to himself, If only you knew, mom – if only you knew…

As she stood to take her empty coffee cup to the kitchen, Joe looked at Cosmo and mouthed the words ‘Home Team’ and winked. Cosmo smiled at his dad and winked back. With this camaraderie between the two of them, he couldn’t understand how he and his father had grown apart in later years – or was this camaraderie new, and the result of his ‘do-over’? Another question for Sal – along with about a hundred others.

Boy, are you ever in for it, Sal… thought Cosmo. Getting up from the couch, he followed his parents in to the kitchen. His mother was in for another surprise today.

Cosmo needed a cup of coffee himself.